Sunday, July 29

It's tomato season, so keep it simple while cooking. No need to make heavy sauces with all those gorgeous tomatoes that are bursting with flavor - try a simple 5 ingredient recipe with slow roasted tomatoes, herbs, loads of olive oil and topped with a filet of anchovy! This recipe is straight from the seaside of Le Marche, where we first devoured this delicious antipasto in Numana.

On a hot summer's day, we keep the kitchen oven off & make these in our outdoor wood burning oven!

Roasted Tomatoes with Anchovies

Pomodorial fornocon le acciughe

serves 4
4 round tomatoes (we grow & use grappolo for this dish)
small handful of any fresh herbs you like, chopped - we use oregano but you can also use basil, thyme, etc.
salt & pepper
good quality extra virgin olive oil
8 high quality anchovy filets, (we use anchovies from Sardegna packed in salt)

Preheat oven to 150 C or 280 F

Cut the top 3rd off the tomatoes & discard top.

Place tomatoes on a baking tray, lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper & herbs. Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil. Place in the oven for 4-6 hours depending on the size of your tomatoes. Every once in a while as you pass the kitchen, baste the tomatoes in the juices & olive oil in the pan.

Once the tomatoes shrivel up a bit & start to look sun-dried, they are ready. They should still hold their shape & not become mush.

Remove from oven, top each tomato with a whole anchovy filet. Serve warm or room temperature with olive oil from the baking pan drizzled over the top.

Monday, July 23

There are endless recipes for scallopini but my favorite is a classic 5-minute lemon & parsley pan sauce. Scallopini refers to meat that has been pounded thin & coated with flour. You can use veal, chicken, turkey or pork loin and in about 5 minutes make scallopini with capers or porcini mushrooms or marsala or olives & tomatoes or green pepper corns, the list goes on!

Adjust it with the seasons - light & fresh in the summer with lemon & parsley or porcini mushrooms in the fall for a heartier dish. Thinly sliced veal can be bought at any market, let your butcher know what your making so they can make the proper cut.

Two to three slices of melt in your mouth veal in the pan with a little salad or roasted potatoes with rosemary can be a fabulous quick dinner any night of the week!

On medium-high heat, add 3 tablespoons of butter & a bit of oil to the pan.

Dredge veal in flour, shaking off the excess & add to the pan. After a minute or so, as the blood comes to the surface of the meat, it’s time to turn it over. Then let it cook a minute or so on the other side & it’s done. Sprinkle with salt & pepper. Set aside on a warm platter.

Turn the heat down to low. Add juice of one lemon & the water. Reduce by half. Remove pan from heat. Add in parsley & dot the pan with the remaining butter. Swirl until butter is melted. Serve immediately.

Wednesday, July 18

When the temperatures soar, try a this creamy & refreshing...soup! Crazy huh?! In fact, cold cucumber soup is delicious & light, like a green gazpacho and paired with steamed scampi (or grilled shrimp or crab meat) is a gorgeous combination. This oven-free, cook-free, heat-free dish will help you keep your cool in a hot summer kitchen!

For the gardeners: a cucumber soup is also a brilliant way to use all that cucumber our garden produces. After all, you can only eat so many cucumber tomato onion salads before you're ready to try something new.

The cranberry speckled barlotti bean is my favorite legume. It's gorgeous color is almost whimsical as you break open the pods retrieving the plump beans inside, while the soft nutty consistency rounds out soups & salads perfectly any time of the year. Beans are low in fat and loaded with nutrients, so pick up a few handful of fresh beans at the next farmer's market (or better yet plant a row next spring!) Apparently even Oprah is a fan, our Cranberry Bean, Cherry Tomato & Cucumber Salad was featured on Oprah.com!!

Growing:

Beans are a farmer's best friend, they are wonderfully resourceful in the garden, repairing the
soil by replacing nitrogen that plants like tomatoes & peppers take
out. Borlotti beans grow big & beautiful in our garden and preserve wonderfully dried or frozen (uncooked). We plant the borlotti the same time as the other beans in the spring: green beans, solfino, etc. They are very easy to grow.

Cooking:

Fresh beans should be boiled in plenty of water with a few vegetable scraps (celery tops, carrot peels, ends of onions, etc.) thrown in until tender. Dried beans should be soaked overnight in fresh cold water and then cooked the same way as above. When cooked the beans loose their pretty purple speckles. The nutty-almost-meaty flavor of these beans perfectly compliments hardier herbs like sage and oregano.

Friday, July 13

In the height of tomato season try this light and refreshing summer pasta sauce of raw uncooked tomatoes with lemon infused olive oil tossed over fresh pasta. The lemon compliments the tomatoes creating a bright & flavorful dish that's quick & easy. On a hot summer day all it takes is to boil the pasta & you're done!

We first tried this pasta at our friend Daniela's house for lunch in Cassero, (Le Marche) and have been making it with our bounty of tomatoes ever since!

A day or so before you would like to use the sauce combine lemon zest and oil in a bowl, cover and allow to sit out.

The next day, strain out zest from oil and drizzle slowly into passed tomatoes as you constantly stir. When all the oil is incorporated, season with salt and pepper. Allow the sauce to sit once more for a bit to allow the flavors to come together.

To serve: Give the sauce a good stir as it will have surely separated and toss with hot thin pasta and a sprinkle of grated aged pecorino (sheep's milk cheese) or parmesan.

Monday, July 9

A great "Meatless Monday" meal is a heaping bowl of mussels & clams in white wine with crusty bread & a bottle of crisp Verdicchio D.O.C. This dish literally is done in 5 minutes - it takes longer to clean the mussels and cut the tomatoes than the actual cooking time! You can add pasta to it if you like (spaghetti or linguini) but the fresh little clams are so sweet & delicious, this is one time there is no need for pasta!

In a large frying pan on low heat add 3-4 glugs of olive oil and slowly cook the garlic until brown all over. Remove & discard the garlic (if you like it, leave it in.)

Turn the heat up, add in chili flakes & clams - cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then add in the mussels. Turn up the heat and toss in the cherry tomatoes, sauteing for a moment or two.

Next add a half glass of white wine and cover. Allow to sit covered 1-2 minutes at most until the shells open. Then shut off the heat, add in your parsley. Finish with a bit of butter or good glug of olive oil. Top with arugula if you like.

Tuesday, July 3

If you are eating your way through Le Marche, Italy there is no better place to start than a porchetta truck! Follow any traveling market & you will find a truck that sells whole de-boned pig stuffed with herbs and wild fennel, slow roasted, thickly sliced & jammed into a panino for lunch. (Ask for it "con crosta" - the crackling bits, you'll thank me later.)

porchetta made in Le Marche

Here is the next installment of my personal favorite way to travel - "Eating Your Way Through Le Marche", a compilation of feasts, festivals, markets & more happening this July in Le Marche, Italy. I have added as asterisk * next to particularly interesting or tasty events! If you are interested in learning to cook on your holiday and returning home with a few recipes from the Region visit La Tavola Marche (www.latavolamarche.com) to book a cooking class this summer in Le Marche!

Donkey race and home made tagliatelle need I say more?! Donkey race through the local contoni (city wards), gastronomic stands with tagliatelle and local products all day in the old center. (Other activities for the palio start the week before)

Family-style pizza night is epic with the outdoor wood burning oven, eating under the stars & meeting guests from around the world. Dinner includes pizza, salad from the garden, red wine, tiramisu & coffee for 18 Euro/person.

Reservations are a must! Call or email at least 2 days before to reserve a spot at the table. 331.525.2753 or info@latavolamarche.com

Sunday, July 1

Nothing says summer like a barbecue on a hot summer night! Fragrant rosemary skewers packed with filets of steak wrapped in thinly sliced pancetta and fresh sausages grilled over an open fire...my oh my! This is a barbecue Italian-style with spiedini or skewers with anything from fish to meat and/or vegetables. Tonight at the farmhouse it's grilled meat spiedini all the way, with grilled polenta & a garden salad.

On those balmy nights when barbecuing is best, I love it because you're outside standing by the grill and not instead sweating over a hot stove!